My job as the Quality Assurance/Quality Control Scientist in the Calibration, Validation and Audit Laboratory (CVAL) of NEON, Inc. started in August 2012. I was straight out of grad school with my head still spinning from the three months of frenzied dissertation writing. I’d also just returned from living abroad in Australia for research. Settling …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/04/an-engineer-and-a-scientist-walks-into-a-lab/
Health diagnostics for the planet
A couple of weeks ago, my wife took our daughter to the doctor. After he had heard the symptoms my daughter had been experiencing, the doctor performed a rapid strep test. Within a few minutes he had diagnosed her with strep group A infection and prescribed antibiotics (she’s feeling much better now). A fast, easy, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/04/health-diagnostics-for-the-planet/
Groundwork in the snow for measurements in the wind
It was January 2013 in Toolik, Alaska, about 160 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the temperature was minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Jeff Taylor (NEON atmospheric physicist, left) and I (NEON micrometeorologist, right) put on snow shoes to prevent ourselves from sinking into thigh-high snow. After hiking about a mile and a half, we …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/03/groundwork-in-the-snow-for-measurements-in-the-wind/
Citizen Science Academy: Bunny Slippers optional
When I first became involved in online professional development (PD) courses about 10 years ago, the casual approach to participation in terms of time and attire were often noted as desirable features. An often-touted advantage to online PD was that individuals could participate at 3 a.m. wearing pajamas and bunny slippers. Over the years, as …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/03/citizen-science-academy-bunny-slippers-optional/
Finding my people (your people?) at ScienceOnline
For four breathless, hyper-social days at the beginning of February, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, arguing, brainstorming, cheering and dining with more than 400 other people who care a ridiculous amount about the same things I care about. We were there to learn about, share and lead efforts to make science the best it …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/02/finding-my-people-your-people-at-scienceonline/
Tracking isotopes to illuminate Nature’s grand recycling program
As I stand in the sun on the shore of a beautiful Icelandic lake, the wind dies down and the midges rise from their resting places in the lakeshore grasses and wildflowers. The fog of midges quickly thickens and I am soon engulfed and surrounded by the noise of millions of tiny wings buzzing around …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2013/01/tracking-isotopes-to-illuminate-natures-grand-recycling-program/
At the AGU meeting, inspiration and camaraderie
At about 8:30 am on the morning of December 4th, in the hallway by the elevator on the ninth floor of a hotel in downtown San Francisco, I met a nicely dressed and impatient woman. “I’ve let two elevator cars go by,” she said, frustrated. “They were packed full of people wearing name tags around …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2012/12/at-the-agu-meeting-inspiration-and-camaraderie/
A NEON postcard from the Arctic to the New York Times
The New York Times Dot Earth blog recently featured a “Postcard” from our very own scientists and blog contributors Jeff Taylor and Mike SanClements. As you can tell from the photos in their contributor profiles, they’re both accustomed to enduring chilly conditions for science. Jeff and Mike wove a description of NEON into their story …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2012/11/a-neon-postcard-from-the-arctic-to-the-new-york-times/
The NEON Mobile Deployment Platform: Help Design a Tool to Advance Your Research
Wildfire, floods, drought and insect outbreaks. These and other disturbances all have the potential to affect ecosystem health and function and alter their ability to provide services society depends upon including food, timber, clean air and water. While disturbance events are extremely important to study, they tend to occur randomly in space and time and …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2012/11/the-neon-mobile-deployment-platform-help-design-a-tool-to-advance-your-research/
Samples, Shoots and Leaves at Harvard Forest
When NEON safety specialist Tim Lucera and I went to a local compressed gas store and asked for personal protective equipment, the salesperson looked at me quizzically. “You’re going to be shooting what?” he asked. “Leaves,” I repeated. “From the tops of trees.” He was silent. I waited for the judgment, but it never came. …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2012/10/samples-shoots-and-leaves-at-harvard-forest/

